Blog Post

Here is the thing about Advent. As all the world around us is doing Christmas, we in the Church of Jesus Christ are stuck in a season of preparation. As people shop, wrap, party, gather and celebrate, we are in Advent, a season of apocalyptic warning about what is to come.

I am not a person who likes to wait. I do not think that character flaw sets me apart from many. We are people of instant gratification, immediate information, imminent access to entertainment and leisure. Many of us prefer Cyber Monday to Black Friday. We would rather go on line, order what we need and track its process until, just days later, the item is delivered to our home or office.

Maybe the world has it right. Perhaps this time of year should be celebration, acknowledgement that the Christ Child has already come, realization that all the not-yetness of Advent may be simply ritualized and enforced orthodoxy. I suppose that a move to Christmas that takes place beginning the day after Thanksgiving, or even earlier, would increase the Church’s comfort level and convenience. Doing so would certainly put the Church more in rhythm with the world around it.

But, wait. Advent has a distinct purpose that justifies its observance. The Christ Child is coming. Jesus is coming. Those statements carry with them a great deal more import than jumping, prematurely and directly, to Christmas. To get to this realization, we need ask only what it might mean that Jesus comes as Christ. We need to respond to the world’s “so what?”

Though it delays the Church’s celebration of the birth of Jesus, Advent is a time of preparation for what that birth might mean. Who is Jesus and what does he represent? How is being Christ different from being the long-anticipated Messiah?

Jesus changes the way his religion works. His birth and life stand as declaration that God’s will does not rest in piety or righteousness, as blind adherence to laws, rules, rituals and orthodoxies. Instead, God’s will resides in relationships, one person, clan, group, kind, type, race, religion, gender, gender-identity, sexual preference, economic, political or social status with each and every other. God’s will is unifying instead of divisive. It is about the sacrificial service that he offers, especially to those who had been excluded, rejected, judged and despised. God’s will is at least as much about others as it is about us. It is less about our eternal salvation and more about the state in which our brothers and sister live on earth. God’s will is expressed in how we treat others. It is not so clearly demonstrated in our refusal of anything that is unseemly, dirty, compromised, questionable, racy or “not welcome here.”

It is for this radical Jesus that we must prepare. It is for this radical Christ that we must prepare the way. The Church can utilize the Advent season to begin the process of retooling, reforming, reshaping, in order that it might ever more faithfully reflected the actual Christ who comes at Christmas. The Church must work at freeing itself from the easy characterization of Christ that has supplied too-easy grace and too-restrictive access. The work of Advent is necessary to celebrating the actual Christ of Christmas.

While it is inconvenient and uncomfortable, while it delays the gratification of Christ’s coming, and while it forces the Church of Jesus Christ to constantly alter itself, Advent is necessary for Christmas. It is the Church’s way of putting Christ back into Christmas!

Boundary training will be offered for SONKA ministers at Harmony Creek Church, 5280 Bigger Rd, Kettering, Ohio, on Saturday, October 19th. You choose which of the two sessions to attend, each focusing on three case studies around boundary issues. The first session will be held from 9 a.m to Noon. The second will be from 1-4 p.m. To register for the MORNING session online, please click here. To register for the AFTERNOON sesssion online, click here. To see the flyer click here.